Zack Greinke pitched a fantastic game today, but a surprising implosion of the back of Milwaukee’s bullpen led to a 3-6 Brewers defeat at the hands of half of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. There’s no narrative we can really attach to Game 18 of the Cactus League season﻿ besides the fact that the result was not particularly meaningful or enlightening in any way, so we’ll just jump to the usual series of notes:

— There was a lot of talk about Zack Greinke’s start, and rightfully so. While we’re still two weeks from Opening Day, the right-hander looked ready for the regular season today, pitching into the sixth inning while allowing only three baserunners (two singles and a hit batter) and striking out nine. Greinke has been working on a cutter this Spring (he has barely thrown the pitch in the past, if at all), and he threw it quite a bit today, getting a lot of weakly-hit balls in addition to the strikeouts. Greinke’s strikeout and walk rates were among the best in the majors last year, but he always seemed to get hit harder than a pitcher with his stuff and command should. If his cutter can be anywhere close to as effective today, he could be in for a very special season.

— Four of the Angels’ six runs were surrendered by John Axford, thanks to a couple hits, a couple defensive miscues (two errors and an infield single that deflected off Axford’s ﻿glove), a walk, and a wild pitch. ﻿Axford certainly wasn’t at his best today, but there isn’t any real reason to be worried: The stat line makes things look worse than they actually were.

— Francisco Rodriguez was also hit around a bit, surrendering a single, homerun, and triple in the eighth inning while striking out one. It appears the Brewers’ late inning corps just had a bad day, and nothing more. Don’t panic.

— In three trips to the plate, Ryan Braun had a walk and a single﻿, and looks like he’s beginning to heat up as he gets closer to a normal Spring workload. Yes, he’s still hitting .105, but the sky isn’t falling here, either.

— It would have been very interesting to see Albert Pujols play against the Brewers as an Angel, but he was with the other half of the Angels’ split-squad. Oh well, it’s hard to complain about the Brewers not having to face Albert Pujols.

The Brewers resume action tomorrow afternoon, with Randy Wolf starting against the White Sox in Maryvale.